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Riak Torrek
Personality and Characteristics Riak is very calm in a crises and has developed a good reputation in the Military for his ability to stay calm and act with patience. General Kpossi shook her head. “I disagree, ….Your leadership skills inspire confidence and trust, your patience and people management skills mean you can deal with the most difficult of officers, and you’ve an extraordinary ability to pick the right people for any position.”''Edwards, Janet. Earth 2788: The Earth Girl Short Stories (p. 137). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition. Early years He was from the Planet Tethys, in Gamma sector. A planet that very few people even those from Gamma Sector had heard of. The only thing it was known for is that carrots grew incredibly well there. ''“I was a sector recruit myself,” I said. “A clueless farm boy from Tethys in Gamma ''sector. My head was stuffed full of romantic fantasies of a Military career working for Planet First. My heart was filled with a burning hatred for carrots.” Edwards, Janet. Earth 2788: The Earth Girl Short Stories (p. 141). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition.'' While at the Military Academy he met JarraTell Morrath a member of the Betan Tell clan and descendant of Tellon Blaze and an unnamed male cadet, both grew up in Military families and attended Military schools. When Riak was ready to give up after his first disastrous week, the two cadets barricaded him in his room and wouldn't let him out until he agreed to try for another month. They then set out to turn him into a Military officer. After Graduation the 3 of them were assigned to the same Planet First Team and during that assignment, they proposed to each other and ended up threeing, instead of the twoing that he wanted to have with Jarra. Riak was from a conservative Gamma family so resisted the idea of a triad marriage, but finally gave in. Military Riak served on many planet first assignments and commanded even more. After nearly 40 years of military service and marriage, on 12 November 2769 the three of them were on an assignment when things went wrong and his two partners were killed and he was seriously injured. It took him 4 years to put on a military uniform again and sirens of any kind remind him of the evacuation sirens. He was ready to retire when his son asked him to take a temporary assignment commanding the 5 Earth Solar Array's. During this duty he had an extraordinary year. Family and Relationships Riak was in a betan triad marriage with Jarra Tell Morrath (grandmother of Jarra Tell Morrath.) and an unnamed Betan military officer. He became part of the Tell clan when they married. He never wanted the triad marriage, but a more conventional one with Jarra. Before the marriage the unnamed betan had an intense discussion over Riak's concerns about a Triad marriage at Lake Galad on Zues. This discussion resulted in some jail time where they decided the male surname for any children would be Galad. Based on a few things mentioned in the book, Marack was not geneticly Riak's son, but Betan culture makes no such distinction. Marack is the only child mentioned in any of the books and stories. One of the Authors posts on her website indicates that there probably were other children. During the 20 years after the death of his partners Riak isolated himself from most of the clan and betan culture and only kept in touch with a few people. Summary Earth Girl During Earth Girl, Colonel Riak Torrek commanding the Earth Solar Arrays was called upon to conduct an Honor ceremony for Jarra Tell Morrath. Which he did on New York Dig Site in their dorm. Shortly after that his son Marack and his wife were killed on their Planet First assignment. Than not long after that there was a Solar Storm that required locking the power beams and evacuating the Solar Arrays. Before they had a chance to evacuate, the portal network shut down and all 352 people stationed at the arrays were unable to leave. The solar storm turned in a Carrington Event. Because of the increase in radiation during a solar storm, they could not stay at the array's so special equipment was portaled in so they could modify some space ships that were never meant to fly in atmosphere. The ships that they had were used to move sails around if needed. After a couple of hours work, they were able to launch Solars 1 through 4 to land at White Sands, New Mexico with minimal injuries' and deaths, but Solar 5 had problems with the conversion and as they approached North America, knew they would crash. Since Riak had been to the New York Dig site, he knew the area contained no settlements so first he tried to land in the river but ended up by crashing into the center of the dig site. This resulted in an amazing effort by the research and foundation classes that had not evicted, to dig out the 67 people in Solar 5. Their ship shields would protect them for 18 to 27 hours “This is Solar 5. We’re within five degrees of horizontal, and the shields are stable, but you shouldn’t attempt this. It’s our job to protect civilians, not put them at risk rescuing us.” '' “This is Dig Site Command. We aren’t civilians, we’re archaeologists! You’ve already breached site regulations by entering New York Main without proper clearance, so we expect you to quietly follow instructions.'' The Colonel laughed. “We apologise for failing to get clearance..."Edwards, Janet. Earth Girl (Earth Girl series Book 1) (p. 321). Prometheus Books. Kindle Edition. Earth Star ''“I’m Major Rayne Tar Cameron, Command Support. Fifty-two hours ago, the Earth Solar Array Meteor Watch detected a sphere approaching Earth. It was 4.71 metres in diameter, and undergoing controlled deceleration.''Edwards, Janet. Earth Star (Earth Girl series Book 2) (p. 47). Prometheus Books. Kindle Edition. Colonel Riak Torrek was the senior most officer in the area at the time so he was the one that activated the first ever Alien Contact program and was put in charge of setting up a Military base on Earth and running the Alien contact program. He calls in Commanders Nia Stone and Mason Leveque who had served with him on Planet First assignments. He also recalled Drago Tell Dramis's team from Zeta Sector to assist with guarding and or watching the alien probe. He also called in Jarra Tell Morrath and Fian Eklund to use them as a way to test for prejudices among the attack teams that were in space with the probe. By having Jarra, who is handicapped, walking around base with the Artemis medal on her shoulder and with a norm boyfriend, he felt that it would be a way to determine if any of the pilots were unable to control their prejudices. He regarded Jarra as his grand daughter. Later in the book when he was dealing with a xenophobic bigot he glorified Jarra as a way to provoke the bigots so they would behave irrational. This cause him a lot of personal anguish, but he also felt it was necessary and was relieved when Jarra understood and was willing to do anything for her world, Earth. Earth Flight (TOC) References Category:Earth Girl Series Characters